Overcoming
by Ysabelle
Summary: Rated PG13 incase I manage to upset someone later. Dilandau vs OC - who will emerge victorious?
1. The Gathering

Hi.  Thanks for taking time to read my story, I really hope you like it.  I like writing about Dilandau Albatou because during the Esca series, I found his character the most intriguing.  The other characters do make appearances, but usually briefly.  If you feel the desperate urge to review, then all criticisms and flames are welcomed.  How else will I learn to improve?

Disclaimer:  I used to own Escaflowne and all its characters but I lost them in a bet involving three racing snails and a small Chihuahua.  Since that wager, I don't own a thing.

**Chapter 1:  The Gathering**

The vast hangar was filled with about 5000 troops, all in full battle uniform and stood to attention.  At the front was a large screen which was currently filled with the pixelated face of their leader, Emperor Dornkirk.  He was addressing his troops on the Vione and also simultaneously on other floating fortresses, reminding them of their dream of a perfect future, a united Gaea and the need for the war against the Allied troops.

Commander Sienna Clavell was giving the impression of utmost attention but really she was idly scanning the hangar, waiting for the lecture to end.  Whilst it was good for morale to hear the Emperor himself speak the words of destiny and triumph, they all knew most of the speech off by heart.  Her eyes flickered briefly to her men; they were a small but specialised troop who initially had not taken kindly to a female officer over-seeing them.  It had taken Sienna many months to gain first their trust, then their respect.  She could still remember the first day she had taken over the group, they were lined up ready for inspection and she could feel the resentment radiating off them.  She had offered to resign on the spot if one of them could beat her in hand to hand combat.  Two had taken her up on the offer but had been sent off to see the sorcerers to treat a broken arm and a broken collar bone respectively.  18 years of intensive and highly specialised Zaibach training had made her more than capable of handling herself, and others. 

Her gaze passed over the assembled troops and then landed on the familiar face of Folken Vanel, strategos of Zaibach, she afforded herself a small smile.  She owed so much to him and yet still had not found a way to express her thanks in a satisfactory manner – words just didn't seem enough after all he had done.  She would one day repay the kindnesses he had shown to her – somehow.

Standing next to Folken was Lord Dilandau Albatou, Zaibach general and leader of the Dragon Slayers.  He too was stood to attention but had a bored look on his face.  Sienna narrowed her eyes slightly with faint dislike, she only knew Dilandau by reputation – a brilliant swordsman and pilot but hot-headed, maniacal and a hard person to work for.  She knew many men who had tried to join the elite Dragon Slayers, the success rate was rumoured to be about 1 in every 800.  Dilandau was very choosy about who he trained. She didn't really approve of his methods of training or the way he treated his men, but then she knew that he didn't approve of females in high ranking positions so she guessed that the dislike was fairly mutual.  They had managed to avoid each other so far in work and social situations and Sienna was quite happy to keep up that status quo.  She had heard that Dilandau was not a person to have as your enemy.

Her gaze kept wandering although her face remained directed at the image of Emperor Dornkirk.  She saw the sorcerer's sat together in the darkest corner.  They were the only ones not giving their attention to the leader of the Zaibach empire, occasionaly, they would whisper amongst themselves.  Sienna gave an involuntary shudder; her dealings with the sorcerer's had so far been beneficial for her, but you could not ignore the numerous stories and rumours that circulated about that strange and mysterious group.  It was very rare to see them out of their laboratories, they were extremely secretive and anti-social to the extreme.  She had never seen them in any of the mess halls so she assumed that they slept, ate and relaxed, if they did anything as normal as relaxing, within the laboratory complex.  Her mind briefly touched upon her childhood but she pushed those thoughts away crossly, now was not the time to be bringing up past memories.

Her attention snapped back as the Emperor made his closing speech and the tele-screen flickered and then went blank.  It was official then – the battle with Asturia would commence tomorrow morning, all troops were to be in position by daybreak.  The soldiers broke ranks and started making their way back to their quarters to prepare for the upcoming manoeuvres.   Sienna gave a nod to her men who also broke ranks and headed back to their shared mess hall.  They were not going to be involved with main assault, they never were, her company always received separate orders.  

Sienna had assumed that she would have been briefed by now if they were to have a mission so she was about to make her way to the training hall when a familiar voice spoke behind her,

"Commander Clavell, I wish to speak with you within my private quarters."

Sienna spun round,

"But of course Strategos," she smiled and fell into step with him. "Can I assume that we are to have a mission after all?" 

"Yes, it was decided only a few hours ago. It will be a small, low key affair – only two members of your team will need to be involved."

Small and low key, she thought to herself with amusement, so nothing new there then.

They reached his quarters and she followed him to the ante room attached to the main living area and sat down at the table, waiting patiently for him to continue.

"I assume you are ready to do your part?"

"Of course," replied Sienna, "so who will it be this time?"

So – what do you think?  Short and sweet or short and ditch?  This is my first attempt at a fanfic but that is no excuse to go easy on me, flame to your hearts content if that's what it deserves.  

Wow, this chapter seemed so much longer when I wrote it but it's not very much when uploaded – bummer!


	2. The Mission

Disclaimer:  I think it is pretty obvious to all involved that I don't own Escaflowne or any characters.

**Chapter 2:  The ****Mission******

Dilandau saw Lord Folken and Commander Clavell walk off together, heads bowed in private conversation and snorted quietly to himself.  Why on earth would Strategos want to talk to _her_ for?  He wasn't sure what exactly it was that she or her men did but knew that her group were never sent out with the main troops.

"Probably incapable of a real battle," he thought to himself, "That is why she only has such a small, ragtag group of men to command.  I doubt she could cope with any more then the eight she has.  Maybe she is trying to build up a proper troop one man at a time." He gave a small nasty grin,  "I wonder what they did to deserve a _female_ as a leader?  And how can they bear to stay, I would certainly request a transfer out the first second I had if I were in that unfortunate position."

He thought indulgently of his Dragon Slayers and the respect they commanded from all the other troops on the Vione.  He was smug in the fact that places in his company were prized and fought for tooth and nail.   He supposed that places in Commander Clavell's troop were a booby prize of some sort – a threat to be used for soldiers who were not pulling their weight.  

"Seriously though," he thought, "who would want to have that jumped up little bitch as their leading officer?  Some _girl_ who had ideas way above her station and had probably slept her way to where she was."

He shook his head and marched up to his elite group of Dragon Slayers.

"Training hall 1, now," he snarled, "and you better not disappoint me or you might find me in a bad mood, and you wouldn't want that!" he added with an arched eyebrow.

As he marched to the training halls complex he thought of tomorrow's battle with a thrill of delight.  Fighting was fun enough, but just maybe, Van might be there to make the day even more enjoyable.  He threw his head back and laughed at the thought and a couple of foot soldiers pressed themselves against the wall in terror.

                                              *********************************

In Folken's ante room, Sienna sat attentively as she listened to her newest mission.  Folken was pacing leisurely, stopping only to emphasise particular points.

"We have decided that King Aston and Princess Millerna will be your targets as that would cause the greatest de-stabilisation of Asturia." said Folken.  

"Millerna is the next heir to the throne since Eires has renounced her claim to it, so with the king and Millerna dead, the ensuing chaos will be perfect for exploiting."

Sienna nodded her agreement

Folken continued, "You will complete your task and be back on the Vione by daybreak.  Our troops will attack the capital about the same time that the King and Princess are found dead.  They will take advantage of the confusion and emerge victorious."

"Who will be accompanying you on this mission?" he asked, "the assassins are obviously yours to command but I would like to suggest Carlo"

"He was the one I had in mind when you first mentioned this mission," replied Sienna, "as he has worked previously in Palas castle, he will have inside knowledge of the grounds and castle itself."

"Agreed.  When the mission is completed, go to the forest on the outskirts of the town and communicate from there; we will send a guymelef down to retrieve you."

Sienna stood up and bowed her head

"Of course my lord, I will go and prepare Carlo and myself now.  We will be waiting for our escort to the surface two hours before daybreak."

"That only gives us a couple of hours," she thought to herself as she ran back to her quarters, "that is not a lot of time to make preparations.  We usually have at least 72 hours to prepare a plan of attack.  Dammit, we have to plan routes and back ups, that is normally a day's work by itself."  She pushed her brown hair out of her eyes in frustration.  But if Folken wanted them ready in a couple of hours, then that is what they must do.

She found Carlo in the assassin's private mess hall and gave him a quick brief on their mission.

"At midnight we are to go Palas castle.  My assignment will be King Aston and you will take Princess Millerna," she said, "I am relying on you to get us in and to the bedrooms.  We will split up there and upon completion, we make our way out to the forest.  Retrieval will take place there."

"It's about time we had a decent mission," said Carlo grinning, "we've been spending more time in the training halls than in the field."

They sat down together to discuss strategies for gaining access to the palace.

A few hours later they stood in the main hangar.  They were both dressed in lightweight, loose black trousers and long sleeved tunic, made of the softest cotton that made no noise when rustled.  Soft black shoes with rubber soles meant that they could walk around with the minimum amount of noise and dark smudges covered their faces and hands.  Concealed about their clothes were an interesting variety of blades of varying sizes and other small but extremely deadly weapons, all covered in a black waxy substance that made sure that no metallic gleam at all would be give them away.

A guymelef strode over and knelt beside them, lowering its gigantic palm.  Sienna looked at Carlo and smiled.

"Ready?" she asked.  Carlo grinned back.

"I'm always ready."

They jumped on and crouched down low as the guymelef stealth cloaked itself and walked off the open edge of the vast hangar, transformed into flying mode and took them down to the outskirts of the Asturian capital, Palas.


	3. The Attempt

To Dark Angel66:  Thanks so very much for your review (my first, and not a flame – yay!)  This chapter is for you, I hope you like it.

Disclaimer:  Guess who owns Escaflowne.  If you guessed a) me – you are wrong.  If you guessed b) you – well, you might be right, or if you guessed c) a small pink cardigan – the please make you way to the nearest mental institute where they would be more than happy to make you comfortable.

**Chapter 3 – The Attempt**

They crept noiselessly through the palace grounds, slipping past guards when it was possible and silencing them when it was not.  They had entered the building through an open window in the kitchen and from there, Carlo took the lead.  He led Sienna through wide, grand passages and progress was slow but steady.  There were only a few guards patrolling and it was easy to hide by blending in amongst the shadows.  Eventually Carlo indicated a grand set of double doors to Sienna with a quick nod of his head and she nodded grimly back.  Carlo indicated that he was going to carry on to the Princess's room and stealthily carried on.  Sienna made her way over to the doors and gently tested the handle.  It made no noise at all as she turned it and slipped in through the small gap.

Once in the bedroom, she looked dispassionately at her subject and pulled out a small, blackened blade.  She silently crept over to the sleeping figure and stopped, there she closed her eyes and emptied her mind.  There was a soft sigh as Sienna completed her work and then silence reined again.  The familiar feeling of regret and sadness washed over her but she was too used to it by now to let it affect her.  "Ok," she thought to herself, "this room is on the second floor so the window is probably the best means of escape."  She crossed lightly over to the window and cautiously opened it up, mindful of any squeaking the metal may make.  Looking directly below the window she saw grass, the perfect landing ground.

Taking out a small grapple hook that had a length of rope attached to it, she secured the hook to the sill and lowered the rope out the window, listening at all times for anything unusual.  Satisfied, she swung herself out of the window and carefully lowered herself down the rope.  She dropped lightly to the ground and looked around for the palace gazebo where she and Carlo had agreed to meet up.  

Suddenly, voices rang out loudly within the palace itself.  Sienna crouched down low and flattened herself against the wall.  Lights started to come on rapidly around the building; she was just about to fall back to the darker safety of the garden when she heard voices inside.

"…attempt on Princess Millerna."

"What?!"

"Yeah, luckily Commander Schezar was nearby and he managed to kill the assassin."

"He killed him?  But how can they interrogate a dead body?  That was careless of Commander Schezar."

"Yeah well, there will probably be a few questions asked about that.  Not least the question of what the hell was he doing near the princess's room in the first place when he is meant to be stationed in his barracks."

"Oops" said one of the voices

"You're not kidding!  When the King finds out, he's…"

Sienna didn't hang around to find out anymore, she quickly headed towards the sanctuary of the palace gardens.

When she was deep within the grounds, she found a small fountain and quickly washed off the dark smudges from her hands and face.  Next she ducked behind a bush and pulled off her black tunic top and turned it inside out so was now blue in colour.  When she put it back on, she looked like a palace servant and so, found it fairly easy to slip away into the anonymous streets of Palas.  When she felt that she was a respectable distance away from the royal house she ran as fast as she could to the outskirts to the west of the city.

Her throat constricted when she thought of Carlo but she forced herself to stop that train of thought.  All effort needed to be aimed at getting to the retrieval point.  She redoubled her efforts and sprinted on.

She eventually came to the edge of the forest and scanned its borders, looking for any depressions in the ground that might indicate a large weight under stealth.  She saw a likely looking area and made her way towards it, when nothing happened she coughed twice loudly and looked pointedly at the seeming empty space.

About 20 feet above her head, a large guymelef arm appeared out of thin air.  Sienna was surprised to note that it was blood red in colour, there was only one person she knew who piloted a red guymelef but surely he wouldn't be doing anything so beneath him as a simple retrieval mission?

"Where's the other one," Dilandau's distinctive voice rang out, obviously irritated, "I was told there would be two of you."

The red arm lowered itself to the ground allowing her to jump on.  There was no hand on this guymelef for her to crouch into so she sat in the crook of the elbow and hunched up miserably.

"He didn't make it" Sienna said tightly.  Her throat felt too small and narrow and speaking normally was an effort.

"So you're just going to leave your man there?  How very commendable of you commander." Dilandau spat the words with venom.

Sienna jumped up, her eyes were glittering dangerously "If I thought he was alive then I would do everything in my power to get him back.  There is no benefit in bringing back a corpse, _Lord_ Dilandau." She put emphasise on the word Lord and was careful not to make it sound too mocking, but not careful enough though.  The guymelef's other arm came up and a crima claw slowly unsheathed itself, making its way to her throat.  It stopped with barely an inch to go before it would pierce her skin.

"I do hope you're not being cheeky," Dilandau said silkily, "I'm sure you know that any cheek to a superior officer can be punishable by death?"  The claw slid out a little bit further until it was pressed lightly against her skin.  

Sienna calculated her odds of getting out of her current vulnerable position, and she was pretty certain she could do it; but then, she had to rely on Dilandau to get her back to the Vione.  "Dammit," she thought to herself, "I've got to back down to him."

"If you have taken any offence to my words my lord," she said head bowed, "then obviously I must apologise."

Dilandau chuckled to himself, this was more like it – she was meek and humiliated and he rather liked her like this.  He'd have to find another opportunity to do it again.  

The crima claw sheathed itself again before the guymelef kicked off the ground, hovered a second whilst transforming into flying mode, and then headed back towards the Vione.  Sienna pushed herself further down into the crook of the great guymelef's elbow and hung on for dear life.


End file.
